By Kenan Miruka and Nick Oluoch
NAIROBI, KENYA: In the run up to the last General Election, key political players keen to marshal support for their parties engaged in power sharing deals in a phenomenon commonly referred to as ‘negotiated democracy’.
Leaders in several counties pushed to share out political power among various interest groups in their regions, both in the national and county governments. Several politicians rescued and resurrected their careers through intense brokerage while at the same time locking out others.
In Migori County for instance, Dr Wilfred Machage got a lifeline in his senate bid following the intervention of Prime Minister Raila Odinga who brokered a deal that saw crucial county seats shared between the Luo and Kuria communities in the area.
The scenario was the same in Kisii County where a power sharing deal among the six clans in the area saw ODM clinch the posts of Senator, Governor, Deputy Governor, Women Representative and House Speaker.
Former minister Chris Obure (Bobasi) who spearheaded talks leading to the deal won the senate seat while former PS James Ongwae from Kitutu Chache was elected governor. However, some clans feel they did not get the right ‘size’ of seats they deserved.
Obure defended the proposal saying negotiated democracy was recognised in the Constitution and was the only way to ensure harmony among the six clans in the county.
Cosmopolitan population
And while constituting the County Executive Committee, Ongwae set aside two seats for the South Mugirango clan, which did not get a major seat in the county government as per the negotiated deal.
Joash Maangi (Bomachoge), Kerosi Ondieki (Nyaribari) and Mary Keraa (Bonchari) got the seats of Deputy Governor, Speaker and Women Representative respectively. Similar negotiations took place in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia counties that have in the past witnessed conflict as the cosmopolitan populations contested for political power.
KIBUNJIA’S TAKE
Proponents of ‘negotiated democracy’ led by National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia lauded it as a move that could be a catalyst for national healing and stability.
However, barely two months after the March 4 elections, disquiet is slowly mounting over ‘negotiated democracy,’ with some residents unhappy with the arrangement while some claim it has not been respected.
Historically, the Kuria and the Luo communities that now share Migori County have remained divided on the sharing of power and resources in the region with the Kuria alleging that they have been marginalised for long.
The two communities have remained divided despite the effort that was meant to cure rifts that existed before. Since the release of the elections results, accusations and counteraccusations have been flying in a raging blame game as to whether the arrangement agreed on by members of the two communities was really obeyed by both sides.
Building relations
In the deal, the Luo community who are the majority in the county was to cede the senate position to a member of the Kuria community as a way of uniting the county and building strong relations between the two communities in the devolved system of government.
In return, the Kuria community was expected to vote for Cord presidential candidate Raila Odinga as well as its gubernatorial, parliamentary and Ward representative candidates as part of the deal.
Whereas the Senate aspirant from Kuria Dr. Wilfred Machage won the seat by landslide, thanks to a large Luo vote, there have been mixed feelings where some residents feel one community did not honour their part of the agreement.
Presidential votes
First, the presidential votes in Migori County were evenly divided between Odinga and Jubilee presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta while the two parliamentary seats in the region did not both go to the Cord Coalition.
And although leaders have desisted from talking about it in public, privately, the issue has been a subject of discussions at various forums as the county seeks to constitute the county government. According to local politician Philip Kajimba, the results of the elections have showed that it was wrong to stop some people from vying for the senate seat just because of the agreement that he insists should not have been there in the first place.
“I maintain that we should have used nomination slots to satisfy the needs of some communities in case they did not get adequate representation in elective seats in this county. The negotiations ended up dividing the county further,” says Kajimba, who unsuccessfully vied for the Suna West parliamentary seat.
Future negotiations
He says that one side in the negotiation table was honest while the other one failed to live up the agreement.
He says from this experience, lessons have been learnt on both sides on how future negotiations will be done, adding that any future decisions will be made after elections are over.
This is the same position shared by Oluoch Kanindo, one of those who was stopped from contesting the senate position so as to give chance to the Kuria community. Mr Kanindo says that the decision was wrong from the first place.
No democracy
“I believe in democracy and whatever happened was not democratic at all,” Kanindo says adding that it was always going to be difficult to have everybody vote in the same way as agreed.
This is however disputed by Matiko Bohoko, the secretary of the negotiations committee and a parliamentary candidate loser from Kuria West in an ODM ticket.
According to Bohoko, the Kuria community has been unfairly criticised after the polls, with almost everybody looking at the voting pattern in presidential position as opposed to the agreement as a whole.
“I think there is need to clarify that voting for Raila was just one among many other concessions that were agreed upon by the negotiators,” Bohoko who attended all the negotiations by virtue of being the secretary says adding that it is time the whole truth was told.
Fulfilled agreement
According to Matiko, as a member of the negotiation team, he was convinced that the Kuria community fulfilled most of the agreements they made with their neighbours.
“To begin with, Raila got more votes in Kuria than any other presidential candidate,” he says adding that in the ward assembly, the region voted in nine out of 12 in an ODM ticket, a tremendous improvement from the previous election when only one councillor from the area was from ODM.
Campaign funds
He also says that Dr Machage who was the national Vice Chairman of DP moved to ODM. For the region not field an opponent for the Governor position should not be dismissed.
According to Bohoko, the less than expected votes for Raila can be attributed to a number of mistakes performed from both sides, among them allowing other candidates to run for Senate against Machage which caused mistrust among the Kuria people.
ODM’s neglect
“Once an agreement had been reached, then it should have been binding to all sides,” he says.
He notes that ODM as a party also completely neglected Kuria with its candidates throughout the entire campaign period and no single coin was allocated to Kuria for the presidential and other campaigns.
This is, however, disputed by Kajimba who says Mr Odinga visited the Kuria region three times on the run up to the polls, as opposed to only one visit in Migori and held meetings with the community where the agreement was made.
“I believe that this is a lesson well learnt and let us move forward as a county and not dwell too much on it now,” he says.
On his part, Deputy Governor Mwita Mahanga refutes claims that there is bad blood between communities living in the county due to the voting patterns experienced, saying such claims are baseless.
“The county must move on and work towards realising development. We can’t fight over polls,” says Mahanga.
